The foot soldiers of Arbitron might be wondering why they had to sacrifice years of their life for this outcome. I'm sure no one who suffered from the competition between the two will get any part of the 1.26 billion. (Full disclosure: I was part of Arbitron's TV & Cable business from 87 through its death in 1994, so I have been in their shoes.)

On the other hand, Nielsen does get working audio-driven, passive personal people-meters out of the deal.. Arbitron was working on them as a replacement for ScanAmerica's STB back in 91, so they've had some time to get it right.

Nielsen's not been the best at following through on announced technology roll-outs. (Remember mailable meters?) What they are good at, it seems, is spending money to buy out competition.

Monday, December 17, 2012

Posted: 12/17/2012 03:49:09 PMAir Date: 01/08/2013 TuesdayStart Time: 11:34:00 PM [ET] Show Name: THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENODuration: 01:02:00Type: Time ChangeMessage: Start
time of THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO moves to 11:34:00pm ET on
Tuesday 1/8 thru Fri 1/11. The duration will be 1:02:00 on these nights.
Stations get additional :30 seconds of Local Avail time in Pod 2.
Please see updated format and feed tabs on each day for details.